In our age of technology, social media has created a lifestyle in which people consume media at unbelievable speeds without ever truly processing it. Someone may find a certain report or video interesting, and then will proceed to forget about it 5 minutes later. Robinson’s Ministry for the Future does a fantastic job of capturing this new mentality through the issue of climate change, and how the characters all know it’s a problem but still aren’t doing anything about it.
With the world being connected by the internet, one country’s problems become known to the entire planet. One of the main issues seen with climate change is that unless it’s affecting a person directly, they choose to ignore it. There’s the “not my problem” mentality that can be seen in our world today reflected in the book, and it won’t be until a massive disaster happens like the heat wave in India that people will begin to even acknowledge climate change as a problem. There was a massive loss of life and a significant threat to the world that subsequent events like it could be happening more frequently, however, it only spurred movement in one nation for change. After the heat wave, India is the only country to create new legislation and reform in their society. The rest of the world and the ministry have “sympathy” for what happened and “everyone knows, but no one acts” (Robinson 20). It’s clearly a problem because it just caused 20 million people to die, but since solving the problem would involve countries investing resources, money, and people into helping other countries, they sit back and don't do anything. As long as it’s not happening to them, they don’t have to worry about it.
Events like these on smaller scales for other issues go unnoticed all of the time. Take for example school shootings in America. They are “mourned by all, deplored by all, and then immediately forgotten or superseded by the next one, until they [come] in a daily drumbeat and [become] the new normal” (35). People have the issue right in front of them on their screens, will read about it, see the names and faces of those deceased, and then forget about it. It’s become too much of a normal subject that people see on their feed that they become desensitized to it. The same is true for climate change in that people have seen it talked about too many times, so now people don’t care, or see it as a problem occurring further in the future that they don’t have to worry about. Robinson’s novel portrays some of the worst outcomes of climate change, but there is no doubt that it is a growing issue in the present. It’s not going to be solved by one person, or one country, but a combination of everyone together, through legislation and cooperation to help the world survive. This sort of wakeup call for working together is exactly what starts to create real change in the book, and it happens when Frank kidnaps and talks to Mary.
The ministry hasn’t been doing enough, and is letting the heat wave in India become irrelevant. Even with India becoming a new “model for the world” (131) by going almost completely green with their energy, using new agriculture practices, and stimulating economic growth, the rest of the world is still burning just as much carbon as they’ve always been. That’s why a solution like the carbon coin, while improbable in the real world right now because of the cooperation between governments needed, is a very logical and great idea. It encompasses the banks of the most powerful countries of the world, creating global support, and stops countries from burning fossil fuels while giving them the money needed to switch to renewable energy sources. It’s successful in the book because it’s adopted all over the world and it’s a collective effort between people to help each other. Governments are acknowledging the problem of climate change and actively moving towards a solution for everyone that benefits the future of the world.
While The Ministry for the Future is far from an enjoyable book for most readers, it sparks interest and informs the reader on just how large and complex the problem of climate change is. The reader isn’t able to just forget about climate change like any other social media topic they read, because it’s being constantly pushed at them as the developing theme throughout the novel. Every philosophy, index, problem, and solution all relate to climate change and hypothesize how the world is going to go about fixing the damaged planet. It’s not some far away problem, climate change is impacting the whole world right now, and the reader is forced to think about what they are going to do about it.
I agree with your point that social media has allowed our generation to be aware of so many different issues today. Still, these events are not genuinely processed, so no actionable steps are taken. This was a key point that I picked up on while reading this book, especially in the context of world news today.
ReplyDeleteThe conflict between Israel and Palestine is deep-rooted and complex and has been sensationalized by almost all news stations. Though many of us are aware of what is happening, regardless of which side one supports, nothing more than sympathy is being offered - while many innocent lives in that region continue to be taken. This reminded me of the heat waves in India, in which you highlighted this phenomenon. The “not my problem” mentality applies to so many different situations, and in the novel, India was the only country to take action because it directly affected them. At the same time, the rest of the world simply watched and sympathized, highlighting this issue as it demonstrates that until something catastrophic happens, the world cannot change.
In the context of climate change, this is even more pressing as if the country's current path continues, there will likely be no way to solve it. Financial incentives are always chosen over potential solutions, and as you mentioned, the “carbon coin” idea is a great idea but very unlikely since it requires world cooperation.
I agree fully that there is the current problem of people claiming that it is not their sole responsibility to help fix the damages caused by climate change. I also agree that the book is not enjoyable. For me it was the structure of how the book jumped from topic to topic, and in an order I could not follow. I do however think the content was important, like you said, and is a wake up call for all readers.
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